Time memorials
by anotherbuskitten
Summary: George finds a way to help him mourn Fred. Harry mourns what could have been if Voldemort stayed as Tom.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

TIME MEMORIALS

~00~

He's always liked muggle photos; how they don't move, like they're just frozen moments of time and they won't mock him by waving or giggling they just stay the same. They don't change, not like people.

He spat bitterly on the ground and then turned to stare at the house; the Burrow was always full of people these days as though they were trying to make up the absence of Fred.

He glared at the strip of photos in his hand: he and Fred had gone into muggle London and followed a queue in a photo booth where they had stared blankly at the camera trying to work out what to do until the first flash had gone off, then they had started to examine the box seeing what it did. When the muggle behind them in the line had yelled at them to get out and that they're go was over they had stumbled out woozily and almost walked away completely before he had spotted the strip of photos and stuffed it into his pocket.

That had been almost a year ago now and he had only just found the photos having forgotten all about them. A year ago seemed like a different world now – a world without war, a world that was still almost untouched by Voldemort, a world with Fred in it. He would do anything to be back in that world again.

~00~

Later when the others come out of the house they find George sealing a small wooden box up and sticking the strip of photos to it. They watch him for a bit waiting to see what he was doing, not interrupting because they know he's taking Fred's death harder than they are. He got some out of his pocket and tied it around the box, and then he levitated it up onto a branch; looping the rope around it so that the box was hanging from the tree.

He turned towards them;

"It's a memorial for Fred, just a box full of things that meant something to him, I'll open it sometime in the future when I feel ready –"

"Like a time capsule "Hermione interjected.

"– I think" he said, ignoring Hermione, "we should do one for everyone who," his voice broke, "Who died. One for each of us." He looked down. He could feel them staring at him. There was a brief silence then Molly cleared her throat,

"People who died in the last war too? I mean, they never got anything like this" She clarified. He looked up, a hesitant smile – the first one in many days – crossing his face as he saw the others smiling and nodding at him. He nodded back at Molly who smiled in return. Slowly they moved off to get boxes; Harry was left behind; shuffling nervously,

"Uh," he started, "Should we do Death Eaters to?" It felt odd George thought to have Harry ask _him _a question; Harry was the penultimate leader, he was not someone who asked; he was the one who answered. It was sometimes difficult to remember that he was still only seventeen.

"Yes." He answered defiantly "They were people too; they deserve something, only on a different tree okay?"

Harry laughed: it was an odd sound after all these weeks living in silence. "And Voldemort?" He asked.

George took longer to answer this time; "No" he said decisively.

"What about Tom Riddle?"

George looked at the boy-who-lived strangely.

"Before he became Voldemort" Harry clarified,

"If it means that much to you then yeah, go ahead. But bury him alright; seeing as he was the root of it all"

Harry nodded and smiled before walking off. George lent up against the tree with Fred's memorial swinging on it hastily wiping away the tears before they could fully form.

EPILOGUE

When they opened the box sometime later, they discovered that George had put a paint bomb inside it and everyone was covered in multicoloured flashing paint for the next month and a half.


	2. Chapter 2

**Eh. Not much to say here, I didn't plan on writing this but I needed to write _something_ and I think it worked out ok. I might do some other boxes in later chapters but it will stay 'complete' for the time being. I've got a load of unposted stuff that I'll put up over the next few days, if anyone cares.**

* * *

It's hard to track down any remnants of Tom Riddle's past that don't have any connections to his time as Lord Voldemort.

TMR

Harry visits the Gaunt house and digs around for anything that could go in the box. There wasn't much to begin with though and now it is barely standing upright so he gives in. He snags a vine from the garden of the Riddle house though.

It is strong, tenacious but when he pulls it out it comes easily – as though it wanted nothing more than to leave this house behind.

TMR

Next he goes back to where the orphanage used to stand. Dusty bricks and construction plans. New buildings, new life – he wonders if the muggles can feel the difference. He takes a handful of dust from the floor and drops it into the box.

As much as the young Riddle hated the place it had still shaped large parts of him.

Harry moves on.

TMR

Diagon Alley.

He recreates the wonder he first felt on arrival but tries to fit darkness into his view. He fails miserably as anyone would expect. He stops at Borgin and Burkes' instead and takes six galleons out of the till; he replaces them with his own of course.

Maybe if Borgin had brought the locket for its true value Merope would have lived, and none of this would have happened. Maybe.

TMR

He avoids going to Hogwarts for the longest time and instead hangs around Kings Cross on the first of September. He finds the stub of a ticket on the rails once the train has left.

TMR

Still putting off Hogwarts he finds a street-seller whose wares include phoenix feathers. It isn't Fawkes but still. Better than nothing.

He buys a mouth organ too.

TMR

Finally he goes back to the castle. The repairs are over, everything's back to normal –

Except it isn't of course –

He goes into the Slytherin common room, searches for something that might have stayed the same; he grabs a tie, a forgotten piece of homework and a prefect badge, then leaves, glad to be gone.

TMR

Lastly he decides that being descended from Slytherin was probably something Riddle was proud of and tears a page detailing his life out of a history book.

TMR

A vine, dust, six galleons, a train ticket, a phoenix feather, a mouth organ, a school tie, some homework, a prefect badge and a passage from a book.

Life is very short.


End file.
